Have you ever competed in an egg-drop?
Picture this: You have to launch your egg in a rocket, let it coast for a really long time, then separate from the rocket, then deploy a parachute, then discard its protective casing, then inflate a bunch of airbags, then drop off of the parachute high enough that there's absolutely no chance of being covered by the parachute when it lands, then bounce for several minutes, and then when you've stopped moving, you have to open up and let the egg roll out.
e: landing on Mars is already a jarring enough experience as it is without adding even more things to go wrong. Airbags are cool in the same way base-jumping is cool; it's fucking ballsy and there are much safer ways of getting down. All well and good if you're looking to have a good time, but when your goal is to successfully complete a mission...
Don't get me wrong, I think the whole mission was very cool and I salute the scientists who pulled it off. Still, using airbags was a bad idea from the start.
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